Sandwich cookies are made from two equally-sized cookie halves and a cream filler. A filler or crème depositor applies the filler to the lower base cake, and top base cake is applied to the resulting filler and bottom base cake laminate. To handle deposits for fillers or crèmes of large volumes and maintain production speeds, multiple rotating stencil drums depositors would have to be considered. A crème depositor generally includes a tubular shaft having one or more stencil ports around which a depositor drum rotates. As the depositor drum rotates, a fixed cutoff wire cuts off the filler crème for each stencil, thereby leaving a defined deposit of filler crème on a lower base cake. This approach works well when trying to deposit small quantities of filler like Oreo® Crème. However, when the volume of material gets large as when attempting to produce a large sandwiched product, then the depositor drum cannot provide enough crème for the volume required and the system is therefore inadequate. Using multiple depositor drums to separately deposit filler in several stages to meet the larger filler volume requirements requires precise timing to make sure that the fillers are deposited evenly and back to back to ensure proper depositing of the filler or crèmes onto the base cake. The system is complex in terms of piping and pumping and complicated synchronization is required.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,114,524 to Welch discloses a machine for automatically making sandwiches having filler material located between two cookie halves. The machine comprises a dividing mechanism for receiving rows of cookie halves and for directing alternate rows of cookie halves to a top conveyor and a bottom conveyor. A filler applicator is located above the bottom conveyor for applying filling to the rows of cookie halves on the bottom conveyor. The top conveyor transports rows of cookie halves and deposits them at a sandwich location downstream from the filler applicator.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,098,909 and 4,194,443, both to Mims, disclose a method and apparatus for depositing filling on cookie halves having a flat side up. A vacuum pick-up device raises rows of cookie halves having a flat side down and deposits them on the filled cookie halves.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,993,453 to Fay discloses a sandwiching machine for assembling sandwiches that comprise two cookies with a cream filler between them. A conveyor feeds cookies to a cream depositor which deposits a layer of cream on the cookies. Then, another cookie is deposited on the layer of cream and the assembled sandwiches are delivered to a stacker. The cookies are supported by a taut wire arrangement. Pin-like fingers of a conveyor chain slide the cookies along the supporting wires. The cream depositor comprises a tubular shaft having a pair of stencil ports around which a depositor drum rotates. The disclosure of U.S. Pat. No. 2,993,453 to Fay is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,329,920 to Rose et al. discloses an automatic sandwiching machine for cookies. A cookie is deposited from a magazine onto taut parallel wires and conveyed along the wires by pins extending upwardly carried by links of endless chains of a conveyor. A turn-over wheel transfers the cookie from the magazine design-side down onto the parallel wires and then a cream valve or stencil applies cream to the plain side of the cookie. Another cookie is then applied to the cream with the design-side up. The disclosure of U.S. Pat. No. 4,329,920 to Rose et al. is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,469,021 to Rose et al. discloses a sandwiching machine for applying cream, for example, a chocolate or vanilla flavored filling, jelly, peanut butter or the like, to at least two laterally spaced rows of cookies traveling along the sandwiching machine. The sandwiching machine includes a stencil means for applying cream to the cookies in a uniform manner. The stencil assembly comprises a stencil sleeve and a stencil rotatable thereon. The stencil has spaced apart discharge orifices. The stencil sleeve has inlets at each side of the discharge orifices and valve means for controlling the flow of cream through the discharge orifices. A cream hopper communicates with the stencil sleeve inlets. The disclosure of U.S. Pat. No. 4,469,021 to Rose et al. is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
The present invention provides for the continuous, mass production of sandwich baked goods such as sandwich cookies and sandwich crackers having a high volume of filler crème covering large base cakes, at high production rates using a single depositor rather than multiple depositors. Products containing a large surface area of filler crème, such as large rectangular or elongated products, rather than round products may be produced rapidly with accurate placement of the filler on the bottom base cake using the method and apparatus of the present invention.